The larger tablets have been too big for me. I waited until the 7/8 inch ones came out. I played with a Google Nexus 7 for a while but decided for my use cases the iPad Mini would be more suitable. Using your wish-list...

1) Tomtom app for iPad - Doesn't need a network connection.

2) Open Streetmap clients are out there. An update tool is just software.

3) Why the hell do you want a full size USB. They're *HUGE*. The iPad Mini is only about 5 mm thick in total. It has lightning which is a USB host. I would like Apple to support more devices on it. SD card and USB storage devices have limited support.

4) I love the thumb keyboard you get by 'splitting' the keyboard. On the Mini it works really well with everything easily accessible. I would imaging its a bit big on a full sized iPad. I have a bluetooth apple keyboard for various uses and with the iPad it works really well. Its a bit bigger than you want to carry around normally but quite light. (http://www.cyberspice.org.uk/blog/2012/12/29/apple-bluetooth-keyboard-and-ipad/)

5) Since I live in Northern Europe. I've not really had a chance to use it outside in daylight :-D

6) "Hardware" toggles aren't really physical switches in the connection. They're still just switches that toggle GPIOs. Easily over-ridden in software if you want to. Having the slide switch on the iPad more configurable would be nice.

7) HDMI connector? Wires, how retro! Again the lightning connector supports this functionality via an adapter. Like the USB connector an HDMI connector is quite large and not everyone will want one. The current use of adapters on both IOS and Android tablets is a better solution. However I use Airplay via an AppleTV to watch movies and play games on my TV. Works nicely with Netflix, iTunes, and BBC iPlayer.

8) Stereo record is another function that not everyone needs so why build it in if you don't need it. Android tablets with a USB host should be able to support it via a dongle.

9) The bright LED is something missing from the iPad Mini. The iPhone has it but not the iPad Mini.

10) To be honest I'm not worried about supporting multiple OSes. If I wanted that I would have a laptop (which I do). The iPad is something I can carry in my handbag and pull out when I need a web browser, e-mail, to SSH in to something or what ever...

A lot of the wish list is possible now with at least one of the available tablet types. The requirement for things like full sized sockets and the like kind of defeats the whole purpose of the small, light, thin, tablet and is missing the point.

My iPad Mini is 5mm thick. Take in to account the screen glass and there's space is tight. The only place you could even try to have a micro SD card slot is the top or bottom edges since the screen is so close to the sides.

Acorn's RISC OS had it earlier (the memory model).

Apple dumped MacOS in about 2001 when they introduced OS X. OS X is not MacOS.

And as a postscript.

Acorn actually took Apple to task when they advertised "the worlds first RISC desktop machine" since the Acorn A310 came out before the Apple PowerPC machines. Apple had to retract the advertisement.

I had an Acorn A3000 from 1989 and then upgraded to an Acorn RISC PC in 1994 which at the time was faster than equivalent PC technology. I put together one of the first distributions of ARM Linux for that machine a few years later. Admittedly Intel has caught up and over taken ARM on the desktop and in the laptop but with the introduction of the 64 bit ARM 12s, the power per watt, and the size of the processors, there's no reason why they shouldn't be comparable.

Elite II and Elite Frontier were buggy as hell. I loved Elite on my BBC Micro (and lost almost a year playing it) but I never got on with the sequels and when I did they would bomb out. I hope what ever he produces now will be of better quality.

Personally I think a PC is the wrong target. As others have said there is already games like Eve on line and its ilk. Why not a hand held multi-user?

Older workers don't need to work 90 hours a week. I'm a senior consultant in a consultancy which works with embedded devices. I'm a software engineer but have some hardware experience. I've been developing for 30 years now. I keep up to date with the latest info. But I work smart.

One of my responsibilities is bringing up young developers, often fresh out of Uni. They might be able to program and do algorithms but they aren't developers. They need to be trained. I reckon I could do a task in a quarter of the time that they do it because I have experience and I produce quality code. So they may work long hours, over the weekend and so on and I do my 40 odd hours and still get the work done quicker.

Last year I'd been a bit poorly through the year and it was commented on in my annual review. I was told do you realise that you had X days off. That's quite a lot. But it was then pointed out that even in an off year I was still worth several of the new starters even when ill. So yeah I cost more than them. But productivity per dollar I'm better...

Having worked with some of Broadcom's SoC code in (closed source) projects and having had to debug it. I'm surprised they're brave enough to put it in to the public domain. I suspect that's why there's been a delay.They've been sorting it out!

What I don't get is why use all that energy (what ever its source) to carry around all that 'tin'.

*This* is a more sensible solution for those people commuting to work on their own...

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/

Lets be realistic shall we. Yes, the US small breweries have improved *significantly* in the last three decades. The US has some *awesome* breweries and beers. But they aren't the only country that does and to say they're the best in the world (despite some competition results) is debatable. Also its not fair to compare a country of 350m + people against one of 100m and saying "nah nah we have more breweries".

Personally I prefer ales to lagers which means I would pick say a Flying Dog, IPA over a German beer any day. But that's my preference. The UK has huge number of breweries and like the US has this bizarre reputation. Our shit mass produced chemical plant breweries are just a little better than the US shit mass produced chemical plant breweries and I would drink our swill either. But there are small and micro breweries in nearly every town.

And no our beer isn't warm. That's a misunderstanding (and southern namby pamby thing). Beer should be kept at cellar temperature which in a proper stone cellar in a 300 year old pub is just a few degrees C. Cool but not ice cold. No ale should be ice cold. My current favourite Brit Beers are the Brewdog IPA and the ironically titled Stateside from Saltaire Brewery which is just a walk from my office.

My favourite beer shop -> http://www.thebeerboy.co.uk/beers.html

I was at Farnell's trade counter just the other day. I could have bought one there and then! RS has been dreadful with their deliveries.

What I find incredible is the arrogance of commenters like this who think they're the only ones immune and who have seen the light.

I don't give a shit about marketing. I trust marketing people as much as the next liar. I went around, tried devices, and bought an iPhone because I liked what it did. Just that. I recently bought a Google Galaxy Nexus as a new phone. Its was a waste of money. Not because its bad. Just because I don't get on with it and prefer my iPhone. BTW I bought both of them out of contract and they cost the same.

I'm not buying an iPhone 5 because the 4 does everything I need it to do. I wont be buying another Android phone because they don't work how I like and the 4 does everything I need it to use.

One day the hardware will fail and I'll have to make a decision. When that day comes I'll go and assessed the hardware again. There are people who will buy stuff just because its Apple just as there are people who wont buy stuff just because its Apple. But there are also a lot of intelligent individuals who have compared, contrasted and bought Apple because the like them. Oh and different people have different priorities and they may not be the same as yours so don't judge them based on your requirements.

That's why Dublin is one of the top party destinations for the Brits is it? Its complete bollocks. Any sensible Brit has no problem with the Irish. Most of us are mongrels anyway and many have Irish blood.

They're intelligent. My sister was coding at 5!